report from the roundtable – 28th Oct

A small agenda, but plenty of discussion at this week’s council meeting.

First up on the agenda is “reports from delegates” where councillors talk about items of interest.

I’ve had a busy two weeks so I confined my report to a handful of items so I didn’t take up too much time.

Yarra Ranges Bus Service Review
One of the successes of the Eastern Transport Coalition, of which I am the Yarra Ranges representative, was to lobby the government to bring forward the Bus Service Review in Yarra Ranges. The Bus Review enables residents to identify how bus services could be improved throughout Yarra Ranges. There are a total of 24 different bus routes included in the review for Yarra Ranges. If you want to have a say make sure you visit the DoT website. It includes information about the review and submission guidelines to help you out. I have been a strong advocate for public transport and will continue to be, so your voice is heard through the Bus Service Review process. The message that comes back to me time and time again from the community, is spread of hours, ease of use, safety, frequency of service and connection to the train system.

I also reported back on the Clean Up Blacksmith’s Way Day and the Kyeema Commemoration.

Tecoma Pre School Water Tank
In a previous post (see blog) you may recall that I funded a 3000 litre water tank for Tecoma Pre School. As a way of saying thank you the children at the kinder painted me a picture.

The painting represented what the children liked about living in Yarra Ranges and they said,


















“we like the sunny days, sometimes when it rains we can see rainbows over the mountain. The mountain (on the right hand side) has trees on it that touch the sky. In one tree is a possum, in the sky is a bird. We love coming to kinder (on the right) and want to go to school next year (on the left). The people are us, near the trees, the kinder and the school.”

It was a very touching gesture and beautiful way for the children to express their thanks.

“Late items through the chair”
This is an opportunity to raise an issue you want discussed at council that doesn’t appear on the agenda. For some time I have been campaigning to reduce the speed limits through our towns to 50kph. (blog 25 Aug, blog 1 Jun and blog 30 Apr)




















Back in July the Minister for Roads and Ports, Tim Pallas, gave a commitment to council that, in response to the Shire’s request to reduce speed limits, every town would be reviewed on a case by case basis. The review is to be carried out with Vic Roads, the Shire and Victoria Police.

I thought it was important to remind the Minister of his commitment and seek an urgent update as to where the reviews were at.

On the night Cr Heenan reported that Yarra Ranges Inspector Andrew Humberstone was supportive of the Shire’s request for reduced speed limits which was terrific news.

I will continue to fight for our 50 kph zones through our townships. The safety of our community is paramount. Many of our townships have small rural roads and challenging sight lines, others a tremendous amount of through traffic. We need to make our townships more accessible to pedestrians, our community shouldn’t have to run the gauntlet every time they want to cross a road.

Did you know that all members of the public are welcome to attend any council meeting, if you’d like to know more contact me on s.dunn@yarraranges.vic.gov.au